Rovo Dev CLI

# Fix list: Rovo Dev CLI

From Anchor Terminal's listing at https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/rovo-dev-cli, the October 2026 research run, assessed 18 October 2026. Grade E, 43.9 out of 100.

This is everything the published grade says the listing lacks, the biggest possible gain to the total first. It comes from the reason given for each score, the checklist each category was scored against (https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/#checklist), the provenance checks, the deductions, what we couldn't check and what the review panel asked for. A fix counts at the next check, once it's public.

For a coding agent working on Rovo Dev CLI: work through the items below in the product, its docs and its public pages. Each category gives the reason for its score, with the points each checklist item earned, and the checklist itself, so the gap is the items that earned less than their points. Change the product, not the wording, and keep a note of what you changed and where it's published.

## 1. Reliability, 35 out of 100, up to 13 more on the total

Why it scored 35: Local-package reading, the same as the other closed-source harnesses. Rovo Dev ships inside the Atlassian CLI, which installs from a Homebrew tap with SHA-256 checksums, signed apt and yum repositories and curl downloads for macOS, Linux and Windows on amd64 and arm64, and Rovo Dev downloads itself on first use (20). No public CI or test suite, since the source isn't published (0). No public issue tracker. The Rovo Dev community board was last active on 16 January 2026, and bugs otherwise go to `/feedback` and Atlassian Support, so open crash reports can't be counted (8). Rovo Dev builds moved from 0.13.x to date-based versions such as 202604.30.2 and 202610.16.1b1, per AtlasCode's changelog and manifest, and have no public changelog, and the Atlassian CLI changelog stops at v1.3.15 while its repository serves 1.3.39 (2). Rovo Dev has been rolling out as a product since October 2025, but the version number carries no stability signal and Atlassian has announced that the standalone product will reach end of life. Judgement call (5). The CLI runs against Atlassian's hosted service, and the Rovo status page has no Rovo Dev component. 20+0+8+2+5 = 35.

The checklist (https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/#checklist-reliability):

Hosted APIs, MCP servers, models and platforms.

- 20, a public status page with component history (Statuspage, Instatus, BetterStack or the vendor's own).
- 0 to 30, the incident record for the last 90 days on that page. 30 for a clean record or trivial incidents only, 20 for minor incidents only, 10 for one major outage (an hour or more of a core API down, or errors across the board), 0 for several. 5 when there's no history we could read, and the note says so.
- 15, rate limits documented with numbers.
- 15, documented 429 or overload handling (Retry-After, backoff guidance), and idempotency keys or safe-retry guidance where writes are involved.
- 10, an SLA published for any paid tier.
- 10, the surface agents use is generally available, not beta or preview.

Local packages, SDKs, frameworks and stdio MCP servers.

- 20, installs from an official package with supported runtimes stated.
- 25, a public CI and test suite, passing on the default branch.
- 0 to 25, open crash or regression issues relative to activity (25 for few and handled, 0 for many, old and unanswered).
- 15, semver discipline and breaking changes called out in a changelog.
- 15, version 1.0 or later, or declared stable.

Protocols are read from their reference implementations, the public facilitators or servers, spec stability and test vectors.

## 2. Payments & pricing, 15 out of 100, up to 10.6 more on the total

Why it scored 15: Harness reading of the published rubric, scored on the Rovo Dev subscription the CLI needs. No payment protocol (0). Rovo Dev Standard is $20 a developer a month with 2,000 credits and extra credits are $0.01, both public. The credit multiplier for each model is shown only inside the CLI, and a task is given only as a range (5 to 50 tasks per 2,000 credits), so a run's cost can't be worked out before signing up. Judgement call between the 10 for plan-only pricing and the full 20 (15). Rovo Dev Free gives 350 credits a month, but only on Jira Standard or Premium sites, which are paid plans, and the 30-day Standard trial excludes the CLI (0). An organisation admin activates Rovo Dev and the user creates an API token in a browser (0). 0+15+0+0 = 15.

The checklist (https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/#checklist-payments):

The published rubric, also on the [x402 page](https://www.anchorterminal.com/x402/).

- 40, a machine payment protocol (x402, MPP or L402) on the tool's own endpoints. 10 to 30 when it covers only some endpoints or only goes through a third party, and the note says which.
- 20, per-call or per-unit pricing published without a login. 10 for public plan-only pricing, 0 for "contact sales" or prices behind a login.
- 20, a free tier or trial that doesn't need a card.
- 20, autonomous onboarding, meaning an agent can get access without a person signing up in a browser (keyless use, x402, a programmatic key API).

Payment platforms and agent wallets rarely charge for their own API over a machine protocol, so the first line has steps for them, and the highest one that applies counts. 40 when x402, MPP or L402 runs on all their own endpoints, 30 when it runs on part of their own API, 25 when their merchants can accept one, 20 for running a facilitator, 15 for paying as a buyer, and 0 when the only protocol is their own. Merchant acceptance sits above a facilitator because the platform's own customers can charge agents through it, while a facilitator settles for sellers who wire up the protocol themselves. The counter-argument (a facilitator does more for the protocol as a whole) has a point. Each note says which step applied.

Open-source software you run yourself is scored on its hosted or paid option if it has one. A free, self-hosted package with nothing to buy gets 20, 20 and 20 for the last three lines, and 0 to 40 for the first only if it ships a payment protocol.

## 3. Security & auth, 48 out of 100, up to 9.1 more on the total

Why it scored 48: Harness reading of the framework checklist, as for the other harnesses. 30 for credentials and what leaves the machine, 20 for approvals and sandboxing, 15 for prompt-injection posture, 15 for audit and 20 for the security programme. The CLI processes data on the device and sends prompts to Atlassian's models, whose providers don't retain or train on them, per the Rovo privacy page and the AI Terms. The scoped token the docs create carries about 50 scopes including write, delete and admin:repository:bitbucket, the pipelines guide asks for an unscoped token, and no telemetry description for the CLI was found (12). Writes and shell commands ask by default, reads are allowed, bash rules are regex, compound commands are split and file access stays in the workspace. There is no sandbox for customers (`runInSandbox` is macOS only and for internal users), `--yolo` skips file and shell prompts, and project-level skills in a cloned repository can list pre-approved tools. We found no workspace trust step (10). MCP server instructions go into the system prompt by default, with a per-server `enable_instructions` switch, and the MCP page says data isn't sent to third-party tools without the user's approval (7). Administrators can turn Rovo Dev on and off per organisation and site and see credit use. Logs stay local in ~/.rovodev/logs, and no audit log of CLI actions was found (5). security.txt is valid (Expires 2027-02-04), Atlassian runs a public Bugcrowd bug bounty and publishes its fix objectives. The rollout page says Rovo Dev hasn't been externally audited for ISO 27001 or SOC 2, and we didn't check whether the bounty scope names Rovo Dev (14). 12+10+7+5+14 = 48.

The checklist (https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/#checklist-security):

- 0 to 30, the credential model. 30 for OAuth 2.1 with scopes, or scoped and revocable keys with rotation. 20 for plain revocable API keys. 10 for one all-powerful key. 10 off when a secret can travel in a URL query string as a documented option.
- 0 to 20, read-only or least-privilege modes, and confirmation or approval for destructive actions.
- 0 to 15, prompt-injection posture where the tool returns untrusted content (documented mitigations or guidance). A tool that returns no untrusted content gets 10.
- 0 to 15, audit logs or per-call visibility for the operator.
- 0 to 20, a security programme. security.txt or a disclosure policy, a bug bounty, SOC 2 or ISO 27001, advisories handled in public.

Models are read for retention, whether API data trains models (and whether that's off by default), zero-retention options and certifications. Frameworks for telemetry defaults, approval hooks, guardrails and sandboxing.

## 4. Schema & documentation, 45 out of 100, up to 8.9 more on the total

Why it scored 45: Framework reading. Server mode lists its /v3 endpoints with request bodies, and an Atlassian engineering post of 27 October 2025 says Swagger docs are served at localhost:<port>/docs. That contract is only visible on a running server, and no schema for the SSE events or the config file was published (12). No llms.txt on support.atlassian.com or developer.atlassian.com, and no Markdown twins found (0). The tools page says what allow, ask and deny do, what YOLO mode skips and that MCP tools keep their permissions, and the settings page gives each default. Little says when not to use a mode (12). Permission levels, console output formats and tool names are enumerated in the settings reference with defaults (10). Server mode has curl, Python and JavaScript examples. No exit codes or error responses are documented beyond the post's note that a failed entitlement check disables every endpoint except healthcheck and shutdown (7). The API path is versioned (/v3), but there is no public changelog for Rovo Dev builds (4). 12+0+12+10+7+4 = 45.

The checklist (https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/#checklist-schema):

APIs and MCP servers.

- 25, a machine-readable contract (a public OpenAPI file or similar; for MCP, typed JSON Schema inputs on every tool).
- 10, llms.txt or Markdown docs served for agents.
- 0 to 20, descriptions that say what a tool is for, when to use it and when not to, read from the tool definitions in the source or the API reference.
- 0 to 15, typed inputs with enums, constraints and required fields, and no free-form JSON blobs.
- 0 to 15, examples and documented error responses.
- 15, versioning and a public changelog.

Models are read from the API reference, the OpenAPI file, llms.txt, the structured-output and tool-use docs and the model cards. Frameworks from docs a model can follow, typed interfaces, examples and the API reference.

## 5. Agent ergonomics, 53 out of 100, up to 7.6 more on the total

Why it scored 53: Framework reading, adapted to a harness driven by a pipeline. Per-tool allow, ask and deny, `allowedMcpServers` and `disabledMcpServers`, tool lists on subagents and skills, and `/prune` to drop tool results from context (15). The console output format is markdown, simple or raw. No JSON output for `acli rovodev run` is documented, server mode streams JSON events, and no turn or spend cap exists beyond the credit allowance and `/efficiency` (10). No exit codes are documented. Server mode reports entitlement and credit failures, per the engineering post (6). Sessions persist with `--restore`, fork and rename. `--worktree` isolates a run with a lock and keeps the worktree when a non-interactive run leaves changes, and server mode has cancel and reset (15). Sensible defaults, but no SDK, and a run needs an API token, a Rovo Dev licence and an activated site (7). 15+10+6+15+7 = 53.

The checklist (https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/#checklist-ergonomics):

- 0 to 25, context cost. For MCP, the number and size of the tool definitions (25 for ten or fewer compact tools, 15 for 11 to 30, 5 for more than 30, plus up to 10 back for toolsets, dynamic loading or read-only subsets). For APIs, whether responses can be sized (field selection, limits, summaries).
- 20, pagination, filtering and output-size controls.
- 20, actionable, documented error responses, codes and messages an agent can recover from.
- 20, idempotency or safe retries, and for MCP the `readOnlyHint` and `destructiveHint` annotations.
- 15, sensible defaults, few required parameters, and official SDKs in at least two languages.

Models are read for tool use, structured output, prompt caching, context length, batch and SDKs. Frameworks for how much code and how many defaults a tool-calling agent with MCP needs.

## 6. Maintenance & community, 61 out of 100, up to 3.4 more on the total

Why it scored 61: Atlassian's AtlasCode extension, which downloads the same Rovo Dev binary for the IDE, pinned build 202610.16.1b1 in its pre-release of 16 October 2026, and the Atlassian CLI repository served 1.3.39-stable on 23 September 2026. We didn't run the CLI to read the version it installs. Judgement call (30). AtlasCode pinned eight Rovo Dev builds between 23 July and 16 October 2026 (20). No public changelog for the builds. Support is through Atlassian Support and the community, where the Rovo Dev board was last active on 16 January 2026 (5). No SDK and no registry entry. The server-mode API is kept current for the IDE extension (3). The Homebrew formula carries checksums and the Linux repositories are signed. There's no public CI (3). 30+20+5+3+3 = 61.

The checklist (https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/#checklist-maintenance):

- 0 to 30, time since the last release, or the last published model or API change for a closed service. 30 within 30 days, 20 within 90, 10 within 180, 0 older.
- 20, at least three releases or dated changelog entries in the last 90 days.
- 0 to 25, responsiveness. Issues and pull requests answered on GitHub (the open issues and how recent the replies are). For closed services, a public changelog and a support or community channel that answers, 0 to 15.
- 15, presence in the official MCP registry under a verified namespace (MCP servers), or current official SDKs (APIs and models).
- 10, package health, current dependencies and CI.

Models are read for deprecation notice periods and model churn rather than release counts.

## 7. Transparency & trust, 61 out of 100, up to 3.4 more on the total

Made of editorial 41, provenance 81.

Why it scored 61: Proprietary, with clear terms. The Atlassian Customer Agreement (effective 1 October 2026) and the AI Terms (effective 17 August 2026), which say Input and Output are Customer Data and that subcontractors may not train on them (15). The Rovo privacy page keeps Chat and agent inputs and outputs for 30 days and says Rovo has SOC 2, ISO 27001 and data residency, while the Rovo Dev rollout page (modified 27 August 2026) says Rovo Dev has none of the three. We found no retention period for Rovo Dev sessions sent to Atlassian (12). The licensing FAQ promises at least 60 days' notice before Rovo Dev's end of life and dates the Code Reviewer move to 3 December 2026, but gives no date for the CLI's move to the Rovo CLI. Each Atlassian CLI version is supported for six months (14). No telemetry description or opt-out for the CLI was found. AtlasCode's changelog documents Rovo Dev telemetry events in the IDE, which this listing doesn't cover (0). 15+12+14+0 = 41.

The checklist (https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/#checklist-transparency):

- 0 to 30, source availability and licence clarity. 30 for open source under an OSI licence, 15 for closed with clear terms, 0 for unclear terms.
- 0 to 30, data handling and retention statements that agree with each other (privacy policy, DPA, retention periods, subprocessors).
- 0 to 20, a deprecation policy or notices with dates.
- 0 to 20, telemetry disclosed with an opt-out (local software), or subprocessors and data locations disclosed (hosted).

The other half of Transparency and trust is the provenance score, computed from checked facts (below). The category score is the mean of the two.

Provenance checks not met in full (half of this category, computed from checked facts):

- Terms of service: read, states 6 of the 7 things a reader expects, and has 1 clause that costs points (7.1 of 10)
- Privacy policy: published, but our reader couldn't read it (7 of 10)
- Status page: not found (0 of 10)

## What we couldn't check

What we couldn't read counted as absent. Publishing it on a page a plain HTTP fetch can read (not only in a browser) lets the next check count it.

- unchecked: the version `acli rovodev` installs today. The binary wasn't run, and the build dates come from the AtlasCode extension's pinned Rovo Dev version
- unchecked: whether a non-interactive `acli rovodev run` asks, denies or proceeds when a tool needs approval, and whether it has any JSON output or exit codes
- unchecked: what the CLI sends to Atlassian beyond model calls (telemetry), and how long Rovo Dev sessions are kept
- unchecked: whether the local server mode binds to localhost only and has any authentication
- The use page says the CLI needs a paid Rovo Dev Standard subscription, while the rollout and credits pages give Rovo Dev Free users 1 to 10 CLI tasks a month. The two disagree
- The Rovo Dev rollout page says Rovo Dev has no ISO 27001 or SOC 2 audit and no data residency, while the Rovo privacy page says Rovo has all three. The two disagree
- The scout called the latest Atlassian CLI release v1.3.15-stable from the changelog. The apt repository served 1.3.39-stable on 23 September 2026. The scout also missed the end-of-life notice on the licensing FAQ
- No date was found for when the end-of-life notice was first published. The page was last modified on 16 October 2026
- rovo.status.atlassian.com/api/v2/components.json was fetched once before robots.txt was read (it disallows /api/). Nothing from it was used, and the component list was taken from the HTML page

## Weaknesses

- Atlassian has announced end of life for standalone Rovo Dev, with the CLI moving to the Rovo CLI and no dates set
- No sandbox for customers. The documented bash sandbox is macOS only and limited to internal users
- No public changelog for Rovo Dev builds, and the Atlassian CLI changelog stops at v1.3.15 while its package repository serves 1.3.39
- Requires a paid Jira or Rovo Dev plan, the Standard trial excludes the CLI, and an admin must activate it
- The rollout page says Rovo Dev hasn't been externally audited for ISO 27001 or SOC 2 and doesn't support data residency

## What costs an agent a turn today

The notes we give agents before they call it. Each one is a workaround an agent shouldn't need.

- Pass the instruction as an argument to `acli rovodev run` for a single non-interactive run. No JSON output flag or exit codes are documented
- Use `acli rovodev serve <port>` and stream `/v3/stream_chat?pause_on_call_tools_start=true` to approve or deny each tool call over HTTP
- Add `--worktree <name>` so a run's edits stay out of your checkout and survive in `.rovodev/worktrees/<name>`
- Set `"enable_instructions": false` on MCP servers you don't trust, since server instructions go into the system prompt by default
- Check `/usage` before long runs. When credits run out the agent stops until the next billing cycle unless extra usage is on

## What the review panel asked for

- dated Rovo CLI migration
- public build changelog
- publish model multipliers
- date the pricing migration
- publish the server OpenAPI
- document run exit codes
- minimal-scope token guide
- server mode authentication

## When it's done

Send what changed and where it's published as a dispute (https://www.anchorterminal.com/builders/#disputes, or `POST https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/contact` with `"kind": "dispute"`). Disputes are answered in public, and the listing is checked again by the same checklist. Paying for an audit or a listing claim changes nothing here.